Wolf’s Cub

Chapter 2

Dominic was running in a warm field, chasing Rafe and Melli, laughing as they rolled down a hill. Michael and Colin were sitting under a tree, looking...relaxed. He’d never seen them look so carefree. Colin actually had breeches on, something Nic couldn’t remember ever seeing him wear, but he looked perfectly natural in them, his calves sturdy and muscular, paler than Michael’s, but then, they’d have to be, covered up in those long robes all the time.

Nic could remember a time when he and Melli used to wonder, as children will, whether Colin had legs like an ordinary man, or whether as a druid, he was somehow put together differently. Rafael, always the serious one of the three, scolded them for even thinking about Colin without his robes. Naturally, it had been Michael who had happened upon the twins when they were battling quite fiercely over the point. Melli always abstained once the debate became physical. Their father had switched their bottoms for what he called their disrespect–and their stupidity–and had been about to leave them to “reflect upon both misdeeds” when Mellisande had asked him in her most innocent voice, “So, are you saying Colin does have legs, sir?”

Their father had turned bright red and left the room.  Nothing more was said about the incident, but not long after, Colin had taken the children down to the beach to look for shells. He very pointedly lifted his robe to his knees and waded out several feet before coming back to sit on the sand, his robe still pulled back, revealing pale, sturdy calves much like the ones Nic was seeing now.

In his dream. 

At least, it must be a dream, Nic told himself. They were no longer small children having fun playing outside and even when they had been, it had never been quite that carefree. How curious that he dreamed it like this, he thought, looking around his dreamscape some more. The beach was gone but there was a mountain nearby. And Colin and Michael looked a bit older than when he last saw them – was that gray appearing in his father’s black hair?

Turning his attention back to the children, Nic was shocked when they were no longer there. In their place were wolf cubs, rolling and gamboling where the human children had been. Nic started to grow anxious, where had Melli and Rafe gone? But then he saw, at the top of the hill, a large wolf stood watch.  And for no real reason, Dominic relaxed. All was well.

******************************

“Why does he still sleep?  He does nothing but sleep! We need to leave soon to travel to our winter grounds. We cannot carry him with us. ” Chace’s complaints were growing louder as the sun climbed in the sky.

Bran cuffed him – hard, though his voice was mild, as he said, “You think he does nothing? You value my life so lightly, Chace? Or is it that you were so stuffed with human drink last night that you forgot how he exhausted his strength healing me?”

“A healing that him and his litter mate made necessary,” Chace muttered. “I wasn’t so drunk that I don’t remember who it was that caused you to need that healing! Or caused us to have the government guards chasing us! Probably still do have them after us.”

The usual amount of noise that accompanied a pack died down with those words. Lycan was standing behind Chace, his face expressionless – never a good sign. Chace was still young, but he was already a big man, even larger as a wolf. He was one of Lyc’s captains but Bran suspected him of higher aspirations. This type of comment, bordering on insubordination, was becoming all too common.

“If you had not left the other mind-twister behind, we would have far fewer unanswered questions this morning,” Lycan said softly. Chace swung around, clearly unsettled to have had his rebellious words overheard by the Leader.

“Are you unhappy, Chace?” Lycan circled around the other man, moving him away from where the mind-twister boy still slept.  With a flick of his eye, he directed Bran to stand guard over him.  This looked like a fight in the making and he didn’t want the boy hurt by any flying bodies.

“I was just pointing out that we should’ve gotten an early start,” Chace muttered sullenly. A few of the wolves chimed in their agreement – a very few. The older, seasoned wolves and the youngest ones all growled their disapproval of even implied criticism of Lycan.

“We leave when I say we leave,” Lycan said, “and when I say we leave is the best time to leave...or don’t you agree?”

Chace looked around the small cavern that was their refuge during trading visits.  Did he really want to challenge Lycan’s leadership of the pack? He felt compelled to push this, even though he knew that Lycan would let it go if he gave in now. All he had to do was say he agreed and.... Suddenly, some demon of perversity seemed to put words in his mouth.

“Not when you don’t have us leave when we should. Not when your mind is so busy thinking of mind-twister ass – cub ass – that you forget what’s best for the pack.”

There was a hush as the words hung in the cold morning air. Chace couldn’t believe he said them. He didn’t even think them! But it was too late now. Lycan’s calm expression melted into a fierce fighting expression.

“Choose,” he growled.

Chace swallowed. Even now, Lycan was being noble, giving him the choice of fighting as a man or as a wolf. Since he was the Leader, and as the one insulted, it was Lycan’s choice, but Chace would have no chance against Lycan as a man.  In answer, he morphed into his wolf form and sprang at his Leader, his only hope resting in his relative youth and speed.

If he thought he would be able to bite Lycan’s throat before the Leader could complete the change, he greatly underestimated their Leader. Lycan was already in wolf form and crouching low to topple him from below before his spring ended. Lycan took a large bite out of Chace’s hindquarter, causing him to howl piteously. He staggered as he fell, but he gamely tried to square off again against the furious Leader. There was a reason he’d been chosen to be one of Lycan’s captains.

The sound of the snarling combatants, not to mention that growls of the rest of the pack, most of which had also transformed, woke Dominic from his dreaming. He leaned on one elbow and pushed the hair out of his eyes. It took a few minutes for him to convince himself this wasn’t just another dream. With one hand, he tugged on Bran’s arm. Fortunately, Bran had remained in man form. Dominic's other hand was clutching his head, which was filled with competing messages.

“They must stop–at once!”

Bran patted the boy on the head, glad to see he was recovering but more interested in the battle, such as it was. Stupid Chace. “No, boy. There’s been a challenge and....”

“NO!”

Dominic could summon the voice of a hundred she-wolves when he wanted to, as his father fondly liked to say.  He called it forth now, making himself heard over the snarls and growls of some three dozen male wolves, two of whom were engaged in deadly combat.  Little did Michael know it, but there was more than a grain of truth in that estimation, as silence descended almost instantly, the male wolves looking around nervously for their female counterparts.

“You’re awake,” Kaden said, one of the few who’d remained in man form; one by one, however, many of the others were shifting back to their man forms. Lycan was straddling Chace, blood dripping from his jaw.  He’d been mere moments from the kill, but he found he was hesitant to complete the battle in front of the boy, a mere pup, and not of their kind. He suspected he wouldn’t understand why the battle had to be finished. Plus, Lycan hated the waste of a good man over sheer stupidity. He too shifted.

Dominic ignored the gruesome picture Lycan presented. He had something more important to discuss. He looked into the Leader’s golden eyes, ignoring the blood dripping from his jaw.

“A company of guards are approaching. They’re very close. Is there any way your men can escape out the back?”

Bran shifted to wolf form and ran out the front of the lair, two of the older wolves close behind him. Lycan stood and walked over to Dominic, first giving the order for two of his loyal wolves to patch Chace up. They needed to pull together and it was better that they not be divided into his wolves and Chace’s at a time when they had a common foe. He knelt by the pallet and spoke quietly to Dominic.

“Are you sure about this?”

Nic winced as he felt a stabbing pain in his head. “I’m having trouble being sure about much, but the approach of trouble? Yes. That I see clearly. They’re after me, that much is clear. They outnumber your people but I think if I go out alone, there’s a good chance they won’t bother looking in here for your pack.” 

Dominic had tried to send a message to his brother and father but couldn’t be sure he got through. Something was blocking him; whether it was the presence of a large number of metamorphs interfering somehow or the depletion of his energy from the previous night still affecting him, he couldn’t tell. He really wished he could confer with Colin about this. Although, if he could confer with Colin about this, he wouldn’t have anything to confer with him about, he thought whimsically.

“They’re only a half league away, I’d say one hundred and twenty strong,” Bran announced as he reentered..  Dominic struggled to get up from the sleeping pallet. He needed to eat something, he thought, staggering slightly.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Lycan snapped at him.

“Outside this place. What is it? A cave? It’s giving me a headache,” Nic complained. “Is there anything I can eat? Anything cooked,” he clarified, looking at some of the meat that remained nearby, which they seemed to eat with a kind of flatcake. He wondered what wolves drank – when they weren’t getting drunk, that is.

“Here, this will help,” Kaden offered him a drink that smelled sweet, like fruit, but was not alcoholic, Nic was relieved to find when he took a sip. He took a long refreshing gulp then looked up at the glowering Lycan. He really was a fine figure of a man, Nic thought, though he could do without the blood stains. He trusted that they were all that other metamorph’s – Lycan was too strong to have had any trouble defending himself. That fight was ill-timed. Nic frowned, thinking that the fight was suspiciously ill-timed.

“This was not a good time for sport. I think you would have been better off waiting to fight,” he chastised Lycan mildly, causing a stir of amazement among the pack. Lycan ran his hands through his hair. While Lycan was still deciding whether he wanted to cuff Nic for his lack of respect, Nic was walking to the entrance of the lair.

“They’re within a league?” he asked one of the men who stood guard, the mind-twister seemingly at ease with the large, rough men who surrounded him. Despite the seriousness of the situation, Bran couldn’t help but be amused. He looked over at Lycan, who seemed at a loss.

“Maybe you’ll be telling us how you want us to get ready, Lyc?”

Nic turned and gave a fleeting smile to the older man. “I’m glad to see you’re looking well, sir. And that is an excellent suggestion. But if I may make a suggestion, I believe the best plan is for me to go forward and greet this force. I do not believe you have sufficient men to fight.”

Lycan growled low in his throat. He strode forward, clad only in his loose fitted breeches, which were tied at the waist, his chest bare, the hair matted with blood from his fight. Looking more closely, Nic was satisfied to confirm that his first assessment was correct – the blood was the other wolf’s.  He allowed Lyc to grab him by the arm and lead him a few steps from the doorway, out toward a bluff that enabled them to look down and see the approaching guards.

“What do you think you are going to do, Cub? Outrun those men like you tried to do last night?”

“No. If I ran from here, they might think you were hiding me and still come after your pack,” Nic answered, in what he thought was a very reasonable tone. He didn’t understand why it made his wolf angrier. His own far from perfect temper flared slightly. “I’m not a coward,” he said stiffly, “despite what you think. I don’t run away when I should stay and fight. Nor do I let others suffer for my mistakes. Take your pack to safety. If I am lucky, my...allies...will come to my aid.”

Before I am captured or dead, he thought. He did not reveal that he was hoping his father and mentor would come. They’d been taught never to reveal more than was necessary. It gave enemies weapons to use against you. He did not see Lycan as his enemy. Far from it. But, he saw no need to burden him with information either. Lycan saw things differently.

“You are not going to face those guards alone and that is my decision, you fool. Are you intent on your dangerous path because I called you a coward? I no longer think you a coward!”

“It is not your battle,” Dominic insisted, his violet eyes dark with his passion. “You don’t understand. They will slaughter every one of your people to get to me.”

“I understand more than you know, even if I do not understand how this has come to be. But you must understand, they will not ‘get’ you unless they slaughter every last one of the pack. You are mine, and no one takes what is mine. You are one of my pack. The pack protects its own and what is mine is the pack’s.”

Dominic looked at the big man in front of him and felt as though his destiny had come to find him while he lay sleeping in a cavern. Rafael, where are you, was his thought, as the sound of the guards’ drums grew louder.

******************************

Michael, Colin and Rafael tried without success to communicate with Dominic, although there was a consensus that each of them was sensing his life spirit.

“It’s as though he’s being blocked somehow,” Rafael said, his frustration plain on his face. Mellisande placed a comforting hand on his back. She was serving as focus, not actively trying to reach Nic herself so much as assisting the three men in combining their efforts.

“I think we need to get closer,” Colin decided.  “I’m sensing gathering danger even if I can’t get a read from him. There is trouble generally surrounding him.”

“Let’s leave now,” Rafael said, his eyes alight with energy now that something positive was being suggested. Mellisande nodded also, and grabbed up her cloak from the chair. Michael shook his head.

“No. Rafael, Melli, I cannot permit the two of you to go with us.”

Both of the young people were ready to protest but Colin held up a hand to forestall what he could see would be a fruitless, time-consuming argument. Michael’s mind was made up. If Dominic were to be lost to him, he could not bear the thought of losing Rafael too. 

“Michael, please wait for me by the stones,” Colin asked in a quiet voice. Michael looked at his friend suspiciously for a moment, but whatever he saw in his face reassured him that Colin was not going to go against his wishes on this. He accepted a tearful hug from Melli and a stiff nod from Rafael, then strode away without a backward glance.

“Colin!” Rafe turned toward the Advisor, heated words ready.

Colin forestalled them, with a sharp reminder, “This is not the time to think of your needs, Rafael. If the worst happens, he’ll need a reason to try to make it back. And the two of you may need to carry on for the others, even as he and I did for you.  Trust that we will do all that is possible to retrieve your brother.”

“We know you will, dear Colin. Please, take care for yourselves also.” Melli leaned up on her toes to kiss the cheek of the man who’d been like a father to her. She clasped Rafael by the arm. “We will stay here and meditate and send what strength and energy we can to all of you.”

Rafael nodded tightly, not trusting himself to say anything at first, but then, as Colin turned to leave, he said, “Wait, sir.”

Colin turned, an eyebrow lifted. Rafael rushed over and hugged him tightly.

“I’m sorry. Please, be careful, find my brother...and take care of my father too.”

“Of course,” Colin said gently. “I must go now.”

Rushing to the druid circle that he and Michael had erected their first year on the island, Colin reflected on the wisdom of leaving Rafael and Melli behind. He sensed that a large battle was coming, one that would test all of them...but it was not upon them yet. The players were not all in place yet, his senses told him.

Silently, Michael and he took their places within the circle, clasping hands. Colin cast the necessary spell to teleport them to the location outside Breslin that was their destination. He caused a heavy mist to shroud the area to which they teleported upon their arrival just in case any unfriendly forces were awaiting them. The Breslin druid circle had been left there many hundreds of years earlier, before the division of Terrafyn into the Three Kingdoms, a remnant of a time when druids could be found throughout the land. Then, druids traveled freely between the circles using their teleportation skills.

Those times were long gone, but Colin’s teacher had been a scholar of such circles and passed the lore to his student. Colin discovered that the runes on the circles were not mere archaic symbols, but directions for casting the spells for various locations. Each time he or one of the others located another circle, they copied as many of the runes as possible for his study and recording.

Michael disliked teleporting. It always left him nauseous, much as he recognized that it was the fastest, most efficient way to travel. He also disliked landing somewhere without knowing what they would encounter. He’d worked on disillusioning spells until he could maintain them through the teleporting, ensuring that they would be invisible when they arrived. Between the mist cover and their own invisibility, they were able to move quickly toward the area where Rafael said that he and Nic had separated.

They had no need for any telepathic skill to determine that a sizable number of men had passed by a short time earlier. The guards had left many signs for human eyes to see of their recent passage. Still, they both began to randomly read those minds of the guards which they could find open to them. Michael was especially skilled at this. Since they were not far away, it wasn’t difficult for a skilled telepath such as he. After a few moments, he looked at Colin. From the other man’s concerned expression, he could tell he’d reached the same conclusion.

“They’re after Dominic. He’s with the Metamorphs in the hills nearby and they’re prepared to kill all of the wolves to capture him if they have to. They’re after him specifically, did you get that?”

Colin nodded, his face paler than usually. “The boy with the violet eyes, is what they’re searching for. Even a wolf with those colored eyes, they’ve been told. They have concise orders, it would seem, kill all the wolves, and if they can’t bring the violet eyed one in alive, they’re to....”

“Bring his body in, yes, I got that too. We have to hurry.”

Not wasting any more time in talk, the two men took off at a run. They didn’t want to expend any more energy on teleporting – without the stones it would be too difficult to be accurate as to location when they were not sure of where they were going. And they were both fit runners in their prime. Colin was only two years older than Michael, who was thirty-four, still young for their kind. If it weren’t for the assassinations that stole away their generation and all those that came before, they’d not even be considered out of their youth. As it was, they were the oldest of their kind. And yet, they were able to run down a battalion.  When needs must, Colin thought, pushing to keep up with Michael, who was running like the wind.

Like a wolf.

They crested a small hill and Michael put his hand on Colin’s chest to halt him. Stretched out before them were over a hundred of the Authority’s guards, armed with spears, arrows and those odd firearms they used. Michael did not think much of them, single shot and slow to load as they were, but Colin thought they could be useful at a distance perhaps.

In front of the guards was a double row of snarling wolves in a semi-circle, the larger wolves in the front, the oldest and youngest wolves in the back row. Dominic stood proudly at the apex of the half-circle, by the side of the largest wolf, armed with a shield and sword. Colin was fairly sure the sword and shield were mere illusions, but they were fine ones, complete with a snarling wolf on the face of the shield. 

Michael was shaking his head. “They haven’t a chance.”

“Maybe not before we got here,” Colin agreed.

A smile lifted Michael’s lips slightly. “Well, that’s what I was saying.”

“They could have turned Dominic over, you know.”

“Somehow, I don’t think that big wolf would have done that...and don’t think I didn’t notice there were gaps in Rafael’s story. But we’ll discuss that later. What do you say we lend an assist to this effort?”

Colin was so relieved to see Michael relieved and relaxed now that they’d reached Dominic in time that he almost laughed with the joy of it. “What do you suggest?”

“Watch.”

Before Colin’s eyes, as the two forces stood at the cusp of battle, the wolves suddenly grew larger, their teeth elongating, red droplets falling from their open mouths so that it looked as though they were drooling blood. Michael had been very good at illusions when he was a boy; now, as a man, he was a master beyond compare. The army of one hundred and twenty human men saw, instead of thirty-six large snarling wolves facing them, seventy-two colossal sized, blood-thirsty, fanged, monsters.

“Nice,” Colin said admiringly. 

The men started retreating and the wolves started advancing. Not to be outdone, Colin called upon his weather skills, and sent a driving wind – but only at the guards.  It blew astray the arrows of those few who did try to hold their position. Michael added his energy to Dominic’s as he sensed his son using his telekinesis to twist the guards’ guns so that the barrels could not shoot.  The spears were sent upward – and what went up showed a tendency to come back down again – right into the guards’ ranks.

There was chaos among the guards, and the wolves had an easy time of dispersing those few who did not beat a quick retreat. Michael and Colin saw Dominic run forward to talk to the large wolf, who howled a triumphant roar.  Colin was relieved to see that younger and older men came forward then to take the spoils of victory from wounded and fallen guardsmen – but no lives. 

Except one. Dominic had turned to look toward the area where Michael and Colin were when one guardsman suddenly turned back from his retreat and grabbed an abandoned bow from the ground. Notching an arrow, he took aim at Dominic. Michael and Colin were both ready to remove the arrow from being a possible risk to Dominic, when the large wolf roared its displeasure and made a giant leap toward the man, knocking him to the ground.

When it moved away, there was a big red gash where the man’s throat had been. The wolf trotted back over to Dominic, who patted it approvingly.

Michael turned to Colin. “Something tells me Dominic is going to want to keep it.”

Colin wasn’t sure how he felt about that, nor how Michael felt about it either.

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